Of all the world’s birding destinations, Papua New Guinea must certainly rank amongst the most fascinating and exotic. The second largest island on Earth, New Guinea was the last inhabited island to be explored by Europeans, and even today many areas have little or no exposure to Western influence. The virtually untouched forests come alive with incredible fruit doves, fig parrots, fairywrens, jewel-babblers, pittas, honeyeaters and berrypeckers, while over twenty species of dazzling birds-of-paradise present sometimes unbelievably iridescent colours and wild tail plumes in one of the most astonishing exhibits of the natural world!
Travelling by air, road, and boat we will explore the diverse habitats of the country, from winding lowland rivers and sprawling grasslands, to the richly forested highlands. Native tribes still dress themselves to mimic the island’s fabulous birds, adorned with elaborate head plumes made from the feathers of parrots and birds-of-paradise. Our eighteen-day tour covers the highlights of this enchanted and little-travelled country. We can expect a phenomenal variety of remarkable birds in and amongst vast regions of immaculate forests that have been experienced by few people on earth!
King of Saxony, Magnificent, King, Twelve-wired, Greater, Raggiana, Lesser & Blue Bird-of-paradise; Magnificent & Growling Riflebirds; Black, Brown & Black-billed Sicklebills; Superb Lophorina; Glossy-mantled, Crinkle-collared & Trumpet Manucodes; Ribbon-tailed & Princess Stephanie's Astrapias; Queen Carola's & Lawes's Parotias; Salvadori's Teal; Forest Bittern; Papuan, Pygmy & Gurney's Eagles; Doria's & Black-mantled Goshawks; Papuan Harrier; New Guinea Flightless Rail; New Guinea Woodcock; New Guinea Bronzewing; Cinnamon Ground Dove; Pheasant Pigeon; Sclater’s Crowned Pigeon; Wompoo, Pink-spotted, Ornate, Orange-fronted, Superb, Coroneted, Beautiful, White-bibbed, Orange-bellied & Dwarf Fruit Doves; Purple-tailed, Rufescent, Pinon's, Collared, Zoe's & Torresian Imperial Pigeons; Papuan Mountain Pigeon; Papuan Boobook; Marbled & Papuan Frogmouths; Archbold's Nightjar; Feline, Starry, Wallace's, Mountain & Barred Owlet-Nightjars; Hook-billed, Common Paradise, Little Paradise, Buff-breasted Paradise, Brown-headed Paradise, Forest, Torresian, Yellow-billed, Mountain, Papuan Dwarf & Azure Kingfishers; Shovel-billed, Blue-winged & Rufous-bellied Kookaburras; Pesquet's, Yellow-capped, Buff-faced Pygmy, Orange-breasted Fig, Papuan King & Brehm's Tiger Parrots; Papuan Eclectus; Striated, Red-flanked, Fairy, Papuan, Yellow-billed & Orange-billed Lorikeets; Purple-bellied, Dusky, Goldie's & Coconut Lorikeets; Papuan Pitta; Archbold's, MacGregor's, Flame, Yellow-breasted & Fawn-breasted Bowerbirds; Papuan Treecreeper; Wallace's, Emperor, White-shouldered & Orange-crowned Fairywren; Goldenface; Papuan Babbler; Papuan Logrunner; Loria's & Crested Satinbirds; Tit & Crested Berrypeckers; Papuan Whipbird; Spotted, Blue & Chestnut-backed Jewel-babbler; Painted Quail-thrush; Mottled Berryhunter; Papuan & Black Sittellas; Wattled Ploughbill; Rufous-naped Whistler; Crested Pitohui; Lesser & Greater Melampittas; Blue-capped Ifrit; Mountain Firetail; White-spotted, Great-billed, Grey-headed, Hooded & Chestnut-breasted Mannikins.
Spectacled Dasyure; Black-tailed Giant Rat; Agile Wallaby; Great Flying Fox.
lowland and montane rainforest, Eucalyptus savanna, mangroves, grasslands, wetlands, islets
hot and humid with tropical showers, cooler in the highlands
6 with 1 Rockjumper leader
moderate pace with some longer hikes
comfortable to good hotels and lodges with one basic lodge
moderate, can be challenging at times
300 - 350
traditional carvings, spectacular forest vistas and mountain scenery
good
Birding in PNG was a little more challenging that expected, ..... the birds are as shy as anything I've experienced and the bird densities were extremely low. Of course that is not the fault of Rockjumper or the guides. The tour was excellent overall. The main guide, Stephan Lorentz, was really top class. His knowledge of the birds and calls and the fine id details was exceptional and his field skills were awesome, outdoing the local guides at times. And he is extremely personable and friendly. The local guides were also excellent and provided an exceptionally high level of field skill and support, and great enthusiasm in getting pax onto the more challenging birds. And physical support also, including even helping some of the pax on slippery slopes and cutting stairs on river landings at times!! The landed arrangements were generally slick and the accommodation of good quality. Some delays in getting collected at Kiunga airport were I think down to some communication issues with the local agent (Samuel) regarding the rerouting of our flights from Mt Hagen. And the offloading of three of our bags from the plane at Kiunga and delay in getting them back to us in Port Moresby was an Air Niugini issue. Overall it was an exceptional and really memorable tour with superb birds and birding, much or most of which would not have been possible without the Rockjumper team, slick tour planning and arrangements, Stephan and the local guides.
[This was] my third trip with Adam Walleyn and I will definitely go with him again. He is constantly looking and working to find the birds---during lunch breaks, after the day ends, on the bus. He never stops and it pays off. He works hard to get everyone on the birds and remembers special needs that various members of the group have. He took a lunch break one day to spend time with me looking for one bird that I had repeatedly missed. We didn’t find it, but the effort was very much appreciated and noticed. He gave me some pointers and I did find the bird later on during another break.
Adam Walleyn is an amazing birder, I'm quite experienced but I literally have no idea how he knows, hears and can engage with so much of the wildlife and particularly birds around, that was all great.
The credit for the trip’s success goes to our guides, Glen Valentine and David Erterius. Both have seemingly limitless knowledge of the birds, extrasensory capacities to find them, apparently endless patience and generosity with their clients, and (critically) wonderful senses of humor. They consistently squeezed more out of the birds, the environment, and the experience than I thought possible.
I thought Lev Frid did a great job in managing the tour.
02 Jun 2024 - 19 Jun 2024 (18 days)
PGK47,950 - No Spaces Available
Tour Leader: Erik Forsyth
Tour price (Per person): PGK47,950 * USD12,617 * GBP10,200 * EUR11,833 * AUD19,665
Single Supplement: PGK4,950 * USD1,302 * GBP1,053 * EUR1,222 * AUD2,030
Flight costs: PGK5,950 * USD1,566 * GBP1,266 * EUR1,468 * AUD2,440
Can be linked with: Papua New Guinea - New Britain I 2024
02 Sep 2024 - 19 Sep 2024 (18 days)
PGK47,950 - No Spaces Available
Tour Leader: Stephan Lorenz
Tour price (Per person): PGK47,950 * USD12,617 * GBP10,200 * EUR11,833 * AUD19,665
Single Supplement: PGK4,950 * USD1,302 * GBP1,053 * EUR1,222 * AUD2,030
Flight costs: PGK5,950 * USD1,566 * GBP1,266 * EUR1,468 * AUD2,440
Can be linked with: Papua New Guinea - New Britain III 2024
20 Aug 2025 - 06 Sep 2025 (18 days)
PGK47,950 - 1 Space Available
Tour Leader: Erik Forsyth
Tour price (Per person): PGK47,950 * USD12,617 * GBP10,200 * EUR11,833 * AUD19,665
Single Supplement: PGK4,950 * USD1,302 * GBP1,053 * EUR1,222 * AUD2,030
Flight costs: PGK3,400 * USD895 * GBP723 * EUR839 * AUD1,394
Can be linked with: Papua New Guinea - New Britain III 2025
Papua New Guinea - Birding in Paradise (Small Group) II 2023 - August 2023
Papua New Guinea - Highlights II 2023 - August 2023
Papua New Guinea - New Britain III 2023 - August 2023
Papua New Guinea - Birding in Paradise IV 2023 - August 2023
Papua New Guinea - Adelbert Range & Huon Peninsula 2023 - July 2023
Papua New Guinea - Birding in Paradise III 2022 - July 2022
Papua New Guinea - New Britain II 2022 - July 2022
Papua New Guinea - Birding in Paradise II 2022 - June 2022
Papua New Guinea - Huon Peninsula Extension I 2022 - June 2022
Papua New Guinea - Highlights I 2019 - September 2019
Papua New Guinea - New Britain III 2019 - August 2019
Papua New Guinea - Birding in Paradise V 2019 - August 2019
Papua New Guinea - Huon Peninsula Extension II 2019 - August 2019
Papua New Guinea - Birding in Paradise IV 2019 - July 2019
Papua New Guinea - Birding in Paradise III 2019 - June 2019
Papua New Guinea - Huon Peninsula Extension I 2019 - June 2019
Papua New Guinea - Highlights 2018 - September 2018
Papua New Guinea - New Britain III 2018 - August 2018
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